GIRLS BASKETBALL: CM averts upset, beats Alton

ALTON — Sometimes, a good old-fashioned kick in the pants is what it takes a team that’s been on a roll to get refocused.

In the case of the senior-laden lineup of the Civic Memorial Eagles, the race to 15 wins has at times come too easy. Their average margin of victory has been by 28.5 points, with seven of their victories being by 30 points or higher. Complacency can set in quite easily.

Even though Alton doesn’t have a senior on its roster, the Redbirds were not going to be intimidated. The Eagles were going to have to come into West Gymnasium and earn a win.

After getting down by three at halftime and trailing by as many as seven, the Eagles regrouped after a halftime scolding by coach Jonathan Denney, using a 20-8 third quarter before pulling away from the pesky Redbirds 53-42 Monday night in a game moved from Alton High School because of leaking water in the gym’s roof.

The 16-1 Eagles, winners of 12 in a row, were able to get their act together after trailing 27-24 at the halftime break. Senior Megan Trost led all scorers with 16 points on 8 of 18 shooting from the field, while senior Addie Ballard added 10 on the block. Senior Brittany Zipprich finished with 11 points and drained a pair of 3-pointers, including one at the buzzer to extend CM’s lead to nine (44-35) after three quarters.

“I think it sunk in that we were losing and it helped to get our butts chewed out a little bit at halftime,” Trost said. “That helped a lot, too.

“I think we were maybe getting a little too far ahead of ourselves. We need one of these games where it’s like, ‘Hey, you have to play or anything can happen.’ They showed us that tonight. … If we want to go as far as we can in the postseason, then we’re going to need to get pushed a lot more than we have been.”

Denney agreed.

“There probably wasn’t a lot of X’s and O’s going on at halftime,” Denney said. “It was more of, ‘Hey, wakeup call time.’ That’s what I told them. It’s been too easy lately.

“I just didn’t think we came out with a lot of urgency. Maybe that’s the result of winning a lot of big games … 30-, 40-point games here recently. (Alton) came out with a lot of fire and passion and they took it to us and we were kind of on our heels a little bit, kind of lifeless.”

The Redbirds (5-8), who were led by sophomore Jewel Wagner’s 12 points, junior Jordann Wilson’s 11 points and sophomore Lajarvia Brown’s 10 points, grabbed the early lead with an 8-0 run that led to a 12-7 first quarter lead. They saw the Eagles storm back with a 11-2 run in the second to go up 22-18, but Alton would end the half on a 9-2 run as a group of inexperienced players were able to get composed again and really breath a sense of urgency into a team like CM that’s used to winning.

“The more that they play in games like this, the better they’re going to get because you can’t simulate this in practice,” Alton coach Bob Rickman said. “They’ve got to learn in games like this. I’m really proud of how they’ve progressed. In January, I wish we didn’t have to start with CM and Edwardsville.”

Wagner, who scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half, was able to keep pace with CM’s post players Trost, Ballard and freshman Allie Troeckler but got into foul trouble in the second half and Alton had no answer inside as the game progressed.

“The biggest thing for us was rebounding and transition,” Rickman said. “We kind of got lucky and they missed some shots that they would normally make, especially Trost. Defensively, we gave up too many offensive rebounds to them and they were able to put back and score. They got a few baskets in transition and kind of pushed that lead out.

“There’s just some of those things that young and inexperienced teams learn from. They’ve got a veteran group that doesn’t make some of those inexperienced mistakes. Our kids are getting better at it, but it takes time.”

CM was 19-for-48 from the floor as a team but 7 of 16 in the third quarter was a factor in getting back on track and gaining the lead for good.

“There were some easy shots out there that didn’t go in for sure,” Trost said. “We have to work harder on that to fix it.”

Denney said: “When you miss 20 layups, you’re going to leave a team hanging around. That’s a game maybe we lose a year ago. I told them over a 30-, 35-game schedule you’re going to have a few ugly ones and you’ve got to find a way to win it.”

“We started executing our stuff better against that (zone) matchup (in the third quarter),” Denney added. “We started finding the open seams and we started finding the high posts. We spread it out a little bit and really had some good opportunities. The third quarter, we did better at finishing.”